A report from comScore that 54% of display ad impressions for which advertisers are paying are not visible under the IAB criterion has gotten the attention of advertisers, for obvious reasons.

Because using clickthrough rate (CTR) as a key ad performance metric - as has traditionally been done - produces misleading results when numbers of viewable impressions are overstated.

Understandably, advertisers now want max visibility of their ads, for max return on ad spend.

Helpfully, Google has offered several suggestions as to how to create more viewable ads, even in a category like Travel where users apparently tend to expect ads to be humdrum:

Optimize for mobile because viewability of video and display ads is higher on smaller screens (55%-97% viewable across categories for mobile vs. 42%-85% for desktop).

Create big ads and vertical ads because they - video and particularly display - are in most cases more viewable than smaller ads. Some vertical video ads outperform larger horizontal ads. Depending on size and orientation, viewability of video ads varies between 88% and 95%, that of display ads between 47% and 94%.

Above-the-fold ads are more likely to be seen, but there's a lot of viewable ad inventory below the fold with lower costs per impression (CPM). For video ads, Google finds 73% viewability above the fold, 45% below, and for display ads, 69% vs. 47%.

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Comment:

If Google's finding about the general run of travel ads being unexciting is correct, if you can produce sexy travel ads the world should beat a path to your door.

"Advancing the use of data to understand and improve the digital world through professional development and community."

The DAA is celebrating its 15th anniversary (see VIDEO) by putting on its first OneConference, described as:

"[T]he ONE conference you won’t want to miss! The DAA OneConference in Chicago will feature 2 days of groundbreaking educational sessions, networking opportunities, and the annual Quanties Awards – all happening together at ONE conference for the first time!

"We are building an agenda filled with an engaging roster of analytics leaders, small group workshops, and innovative sessions. Hear from industry influencers on how the marketplace has evolved, and what the future holds for digital analysts. Join us for this incredible opportunity to celebrate, collaborate, and engage with the community on a global scale."

No provisions for consumers to pick and choose opt-ins to various data processing activities; blanket consent only.

And because Google hasn't delegated authority for data collection and processing to any part of the company in the EU, CNIL has made its judgment directly against the company's corporate headquarters in the USA.

It's significant that CNIL's investigation and judgment came about as a result of complaints from civil rights advocates and not from any competitor who might have claimed to have suffered a loss of sales or profits as a result of actions of Google.

To Americans, with their alleged "cowboy" mindset, that makes CNIL's work look like a theoretical, ivory-tower sort of exercise not unlike the EU's diligent regulation of things like the curvature of bananas,

What's your opinion?

]]>Closure of 18 Mexico in-market tourism offices creates opportunities for competitors[image]mexico.jpg[/image]http://www.davidhboggs.com/blog/marketing/closure-of-mexico-inmarket-tourism-offices-creates-opportunities-for-competitors-2588-thread.html
Fri, 15 Feb 2019 13:27:47 GMThttp://www.davidhboggs.com/blog/marketing/closure-of-mexico-inmarket-tourism-offices-creates-opportunities-for-competitors-2588-thread.htmlRecently elected President of Mexico Andres Manuel Obrador has chosen to about $300M of the tourism-tax revenues currently used to fund national tourist board Consejo de Promocion Turistica de Mexico to expansion of the 1500 km Cancun/Yucatan "Maya Train" scheduled to be completed in 2022.

Visitation to the Yucatan Peninsula from the USA has been off since the State Department in 2017 issued travel advisories warning of cartel violence and tainted alcohol in the region.

The shuttering of 18 tourism offices, on top of ongoing US travel alerts for Mexico crime and violence, will put Mexico at serious disadvantage in competition among warm-weather Western Hemisphere tourist destinations.

What countries will be first to try to fill the gap? I'm thinking Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala are likely contenders.

Stay tuned.

]]>DigiMarCon East 2019 Conference scheduled for 9-10 May in NYC [VIDEO][image]digimarcon-east.png[/image]http://www.davidhboggs.com/blog/marketing/digimarcon-east-conference-scheduled-for-may-in-nyc-video-2586-thread.html
Tue, 12 Feb 2019 19:49:26 GMThttp://www.davidhboggs.com/blog/marketing/digimarcon-east-conference-scheduled-for-may-in-nyc-video-2586-thread.htmlDigiMarCon East 2019 begins on Thursday 9 May at the New York Marriott Marquis with 9 AM registration followed by general sessions to 5 PM, then master classes the next day.

From the organizers:

"DigiMarCon is the premier and largest Digital Marketing Conference Series with over 20 conferences held annually around the world.

Looks potentially interesting, and not too expensive, but their agenda of topics is ambitious (24 listed on the website) considering less than 12 hours of "work" time over 2 days. (Would be good to have some tracks.) And I'd want to know who'll be speaking. Let's hope they do some clarifying before early-bird pricing ends on 1 March.